Monday, 10 February 2025

Encounter with aType D Orca

After an incredible hour with Type B2 Orcas which escorted us away from South Georgia, it was far from our minds that the following day would yield an even more amazing Orca encounter. 

We were on the bridge wings in the cold grey light of dawn. The first officer pointed out the ominous wall of ice on the horizon - iceberg A23a, the size of London, which is creeping slowly north towards South Georgia. Birding was a little slow, with several Blue Petrels and a single old adult Snowy Albatross the only birds of note in the first hour. Out of nowhere, Philip exclaimed he had seen a fin and sure enough we both latched on to what was clearly a male Orca, heading east towards our vessel. Predicting where it would surface, we were both quite shocked to see it had a rounded, almost bulbous head, and virtually no eye patch - surely a Type D! We looked at each other in amazement and the next time it surfaced we fired off rapid shots with our cameras. Quickly checking the viewfinder and BOOM! It was clearly a Type D! 

 

 Pandemonium broke out on deck as we tried to alert everyone; it was still early and there were few people around. Fortunately, the Orca was travelling steadily and continued to surface enabling a few people to scramble to the deck in time to get a glimpse, and for me to secure a bit of shaky video footage. The vessel maintained course, as did the Orca and it soon faded into the distance, leaving us shellshocked. We had always thought there was an outside chance of bumping into this most elusive and unknown of Orca ecotypes in subantartic waters, but we never for a moment thought it would actually happen.

 

Type D Orca live in subantarctic waters, are thought to be fish-feeders and are really quite distinctive. Along with the tiny white eyepatch, they have a very rounded head - think Pilot Whale - and a narrow, pointed, swept-back fin. With views like we had, it was really distinctive. Type Ds were identified from a mass stranding in New Zealand in 1955 but have been only rarely seen since. There is some great footage on Youtube from a research expedition done off Chile in 2019, which is worth a look. 



 

 

 

Sunday, 9 February 2025

Antarctica!

 
Antarctica. It had been a long time in the planning and a long, long time in the dreaming. 
 
As a kid birder I used to make lists of my most desired species in the back of my notebooks- a kind of early bucket list. Always top of the lists would be Wandering Albatross - the bird with the longest wingspan of any living bird, and somewhere on that list, would be Emperor Penguin. Creeping in later, as my awareness increased, was perhaps the most attractive of seabirds, the Light-mantled Albatross. As I learned the distributions of these dream birds, I replaced Emperor Penguin with the similar-looking King Penguin, as it seemed the larger bird would be nigh on impossible to see, due to their inaccessible range in the icy heart of Antarctica. The two albatrosses kept their places; maybe one day I'd get a chance to see them.
 
 
Snowy (Wandering) Albatross 
 
Dreams of these birds and a visit to the icy 'Seventh Continent' always remained in the back of my mind. As my interest in seabirds and cetaceans grew with age, a trip to the far south became something of an obsession, but, with a growing family, increasing costs and dwindling time, was I ever actually going to make it to the haunts of these birds? My wife, Vicky, did not want to come with me; her sea legs are pretty wobbly and this was an idea from hell for her. Fortunately, old mate Philip was up for it and so ten years ago, I made the decision: I will go to Antarctica!
 
After ten years' of saving and planning, I finally had amassed the funds to make the trip. To my relief, Philip was still keen and advice from friends pointed us towards Oceanwide Expeditions, and an itinerary that included the Falklands, South Georgia and Antarctica, which would bring me to the breeding range of both my desired albatrosses and my desired regal penguin. And. you never know, going to Antarctica could give me a shot at an Emperor! 
 
This would be an 18 night epic on a relatively small boat through some of the biggest seas in the world, so my excitement of laying down our deposits for a January 2025 departure was matched only by my apprehension! 


King Penguins, South Georgia
 
The weeks and months ticked by; Christmas 2024 came and went, and suddenly, I was on a train to London to meet Philip, for our flight to Buenos Aires. It was really happening! With all my annual leave saved for this trip, I was mentally frazzled, though the adrenaline of what was about to happen prevented sleep. I had been anxious that something would befall me or my plans and thwart my attempt to fulfil this dream, but now everything seemed to be falling in to place. After a restless night, our plane landed in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, for a brief stopover. We spied Magnificent Frigatebirds, Turkey Vultures and a Whistling Heron out of the plane window, lit by the bright South American sunshine, under a brilliant blue sky. Our trip had begun!
 
 
Light-mantled Albatross, South Georgia
 
Shortly, we flew down to Buenos Aires, where we spent a day and a half notching up 94 species in what is surely one of the best urban nature reserves in the world, Costanera Sur. It was great to be back in the city having visited back in 2007, but sadly our time was brief, as we had to continue south, with a flight down to Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego, at the tip of Argentina. Here we spent a fantastic three days checking out the various habitats in the deep south, along with some amazing birding. 
 
The 16th soon arrived and it was time to embark for our trip, aboard the MV Plancius. In the coming weeks I will write more posts about our trip. It surpassed all expectations and fulfilled my long held dream. I will try and contain my excitement as I relive the highlights of the trip!
 

Orca, Type B2, South Georgia 


Philip (left) and me, Weddell Sea, January 2025
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I appreciate that even a trip of a lifetime comes with a substantial impact on the environment. I have used www.sustainabletravel.org to calculate the carbon footprint of my travel and accomodation for this trip, which comes to 6.12 MT of CO2. 

I have offset this by making a donation to the World Land Trust.


Thursday, 9 January 2025

Ever fancied a birding trip to Estonia?

Estonia: Owls, Woodpeckers, forest Grouse and, oh yes, Steller's Eiders! This is a fantastic country to visit and is heavenly for birders. I have been fortunate to be offered an opportunity to lead a trip for Wildlife Travel to this fabulous destination, in April this year. The trip is now confirmed, but we still have a few places left. If you are interested in joining us, please see this link:

https://wildlife-travel.co.uk/europe/estonia-birding

We will spend a week enjoying the last of the winter birds, including that most sought-after of seaducks, the Steller's Eider; the first newly arriving spring migrants, and of course a wide range of special species that are resident in this Baltic country. With local guides we will visit the best sites the country has to offer, yielding a fine list of birds and other wildlife. Best of all, we will do this at a relaxed pace, giving us the chance to soak up the atmosphere of spring migration in this wonderful country.

I hope you will join us!



Sunday, 5 January 2025

Snow Day

 Heavy snow arrived overnight as predicted, and I awoke to a beautiful winter scene. Two Redwings were in the Silver Birches, clearly hungry, but too nervous to drop in to feed on the apples I put out. Later, two Fieldfares joined the hungry Blackbirds to feed. A covey of five Grey Partridges stood out against the snow on the fields south of Bishopthorpe cycle track; good to see them still hanging on here.

Fieldfare

Grey Partridges - just the other side of the second fence.


New Year's Yank

For once I awoke without the traditional New Year's Day hangover, so joined up with Vicky and mates to do the York park run, or rather paddle - the York Knavesmire being flooded! After getting my breath back, I headed down to Wheldrake Ings and was surprised to be the first there. 

On the walk down to the hide, a movement in riverside brambles turned out to be an unexpected Nuthatch, feeding low down. A smart bird and not one I see that often here, though I hear them calling from the bigger trees across the river quite often. A couple of Treecreepers and a Cetti's Warbler were noted too, along with a flock of Redwings. 

Down at Tower Hide, I scanned hard for Green-winged Teal and American Wigeon among the thousands of loafing Eurasians, without success. Several thousand ducks were present, including three or four hundred Pintail; a fine sight! The 29 Black-tailed Godwits were busy feeding in the water among the ducks, whilst a large flock of Lapwings and Golden Plovers were spread across the main meadow feeding. I switched my attention to Riverside Ings to add Goldeneye to my steadily-increasing year-list and immediately latched on to the drake American Wigeon, paddling across the water. So much for scanning distant duck flocks! The dapper male joined a small group of male and one female Euro Wigeon and began cavorting around, displaying and calling. The light was poor so phonescoping was tricky, but you can just about make him out. The group moved into the emergent vegetation in front of the Pool willows and became harder to see, before being flushed by Marsh Harrier 'D3' and flying on to Swantail Ings, where the American was still visible, albeit much more distantly.


 

I headed on to North Duffield and Bubwith Ings to look for the lingering Little Gull, but it turned out the report was spurious, and the bird hadn't been seen since the 30th. Thousands more ducks were present, but I didn't have time to check them properly, so after a quick scan, I headed home.